Way to go Wake Forest University scientists -- for adding to the body of evidence connecting stress to illness and for reporting before anyone else that the stress hormone epinephrine causes changes in prostate and breast cancer cells that may make them resistant to death.Emotional stress contributes not only to the development of cancer, says lead researcher George Kulik, D.V.M., Ph.D, but it also reduces the effectiveness of cancer treatments.
Previous research shows levels of epinephrine, produced by the adrenal glands, are sharply increased during stressful situations and can stay elevated during long-term stress and depression.
During this study, published in the on-line Journal of Biological Chemistry, Kulik and colleagues found that a protein called BAD -- the cause of cell death -- becomes inactive when cancer cells are exposed to epinephrine.
This is huge for patients and researchers.
"It may be important for patients who have increased responses to stress to learn to manage the effects," said Kulik. "And, the results point to the possibility of developing an intervention to block the effects of epinephrine."
1. Thanks Jacki for posting about this important study.
For years leaders in prostate cancer prevention and treatment support have been emphasizing the importance of avoiding stress. For instance, Dr. Charles Myers, MD, a well-known leader in the role of nutrition and physical activity in supporting prevention and treatment, has made minimizing stress one of the cornerstones of an effective program, the others being exercise, diet, and supplements. A key advice on his card "Tell One Friend How to Prevent Prostate Cancer" is: "Incorporate relaxation tehniques into your daily life."
See this added evidence will reinforce my motivation to avoid stress.
I saw your blog shortly after browsing the online abstracts for the national conference of the American Association for Cancer Research, which is just getting underway. I had just searched for "prostate cancer", and one of the first of 500 hits involved BAD. I had no idea what that was and bypassed it. Now I've gone back, and see that it is another look at BAD by the Kulik team. Here's a link that will get directly to that abstract: http://www.abstractsonline.com/viewer/viewAbstractPrintFriendly.asp?CKey={137CA51E-3D04-48B9-9856-F01D241574C5}&SKey={38A5ED1A-6D42-4076-834F-69A7EAEFFF5C}&MKey={E3F4019C-0A43-4514-8F66-B86DC90CD935}&AKey={728BCE9C-121B-46B9-A8EE-DC51FDFC6C15}
The study title: "The dual role of BAD in prostate cancer" Abstract 3627
Jim Waldenfels http://www.mycancerplace.com/profile.php?id=147
Posted at 10:20PM on Apr 14th 2007 by Jim Waldenfels